Even Beto O’Rourke’s political rivals are convinced...

1of19Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke of El Paso may be a candidate for president in 2020.
>>Learn more about the candidate who almost upset Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz in November...Photo: Tom Reel, Staff / Staff photographer

2of19Photo: Austin American Statesman

3of191972Robert Francis O'Rourke is born in El Paso to a fourth-generation Irish-American family. Photo: Visions of America, Getty Images

4of191970sO'Rourke, at right in this childhood photo, wears a sweater with the name Beto stitched on it. O'Rourke says his family has always used the Spanish nickname to differentiate him from his namesake grandfather.Photo: Jeremy Wallace, Courtesy of the Beto O'Rourke campaign for U.S. Senate

5of191991 O'Rourke enrolls in Woodberry Forest School, an all-male boarding school in
Virginia, after spending a year at El Paso High School.Photo: Google

6of191995O'Rourke graduates from Columbia University in Manhattan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature.Photo: COLE WILSON, NYT

7of191995He is arrested after jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso, but campus police don't pursue charges.

8of191998A more serious incident occurs when O'Rourke is arrested and charged with DWI after a crash in Anthony, Texas. The charges were dismissed in 1999 after he completed a DWI program. He has openly talked about the incident and has apologized. Photo: Jacom Stephens / Getty Image

9of191999 O'Rourke creates an internet company a year after returning from New York with the hope of slowing the "brain drain" out of El Paso.Photo: Website

10of192005O’Rourke runs and wins a seat on the El Paso City Council, where he and his loosely organized slate of candidates are called "The Progressives."Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES, Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times

12of192012O'Rourke and supporters celebrate their primary victory over Rep. Silvestre Reyes with 50.5 percent of the vote. He later won the general election with 65 percent.

13of192015O'Rourke, in his second term as congressman, backs Rep. Tim Ryan in Ryan's bid to replace Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader.Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

14of19MARCH 2017U.S. Reps. Will Hurd, a Texas Republican, and O'Rourke drive from San Antonio to Washington, D.C., to escape flight delays and cancellations in the north. The two chronicled their trip on Facebook Live and won the 2018 Prize for Civility in Public Life from the National Press Club. Photo: Congressman Beto O'Rourke via FB

17of192018O'Rourke, who has not accepted campaign contributions from political action committees, has received a lot of campaign money from Hollywood celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jimmy Kimmel and Chris Rock.Photo: Photo: BeFunky Collage

18of19JULY 4, 2018Willie Nelson and O'Rourke perform at the legendary singer's annual Fourth of July Picnic in Austin. In September, Nelson helped draw 55,000 people to an Austin rally where he debuted a song, "Vote 'Em Out," in support of O'Rourke.Photo: Gary Miller/Getty Images for ABA

19of19AUG. 23, 2018O'Rourke, himself a musician and former member of a punk band, was the beneficiary of a "Bands with Beto" rally at the Warehouse in Houston.Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Staff photographer

The Republican strategist who engineered the defeat of Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2018 is convinced the El Paso Congressman should run for president.

Jeff Roe, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s chief strategist, told a conference of political consultants in Austin that O’Rourke has a “hot hand” and should strike while he has it.

“You don’t get that very often,” Roe told the American Association of Political Consultants audience. “If you have a hot hand, take it.”

Roe, who also worked on Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, said if Democrats are looking for a charismatic standard bearer, O’Rourke has “buckets full of it.”

“He would win Iowa,” Roe said of the Iowa Caucus, which is the first presidential primary contest in 2020.

“What I liked most about his race was that it didn’t feel constantly poll-tested,” Obama said of O’Rourke’s campaign. “It felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed. And that, you’d like to think, is normally how things work. Sadly, it’s not.”

Roe, who lives in Houston, said that behind the scenes the U.S. Senate campaign went through big momentum swings. In early September, he said their polling showed them with just a 2 point lead. But later that month the margin grew back to 12 points. Then as early voting started, the numbers began to close again. Cruz won by less than 3 percentage points.

Roe said early on in the campaign he could tell O’Rourke was going to be a serious challenge because he seemed carefree, less cautious and had an outsider appeal.